Hello, my name is Allen, and I'm a gamer. The addiction started at the age of 7 when I received a Super Nintendo with a copy of Donkey Kong Country for Christmas. Ever since then, my hands have been glued to a controller.

Favorites include (but not limited to):
The Legend of Zelda Series
Anything made by Valve
Pokemans
Bioshock
Starcraft and Warcraft
Silent Hill series
"Da Halos"
Castlevania (mainly SotN)
Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future
Fallout 3 and Skyrim
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Resident Evil series

I'll be honest before this article gets on a roll: I tried to play God of War. I really did, but I just can't get into the series. Don't get me wrong, I can see why many people love and cherish it. Guess it just turns out to be one of those games which doesn't click with me.

So anyways! After giving up on GoW, I decided to move to another game that has been sitting on my shelf for years now, and is way past due for a beating: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I know, I know, most of you are probably like, "WHAT?! How have you no beaten that game by now?! ARE YOU STUPEDS??? AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A ZELDA FAN!" Yes, I do consider myself a huge Zelda fan, and have ever since I first laid hands on a copy of Ocarina of Time. I was super excited when WW came out, and played it for many hours. It just so happens that I suffered from what I like to call "Gamer ADD" while attempting to beat it. Gamer ADD, you see, is when one is playing a perfectly fine game, having a great time, but for whatever reason while playing moves on to another game. I unfortunately suffered from this often with games while I was growing up, to the point where it was a fun to joke about how I never finished a game. Well, that was all going to change this summer. I told myself, "Self! You are sitting your ass down and you are finally going to finish this game!"

Seriously, why has no body hit me over the head by now for not completing this game?! IT'S FREAKING WONDERFUL! I honestly don't even know where to begin. The art style is outstanding, and the music complements it greatly. The over-world is huge enough so you could get lost for hours just exploring all the various islands and discovering different items, dungeons, and people. Now, like I stated in my last article, this isn't a review; so I'm not going into huge detail about everything (just look up a review if your curious). But I will say, if you call yourself a gamer and haven't at least tried this game yet, do it. Do it now. No seriously, stop whatever you are doing right now and play it. Don't own it? Go buy it. Can't find it? Go to Amazon, Goozex, or eBay. Don't own a Gamecube or Wii? You know where I'm going with this by now.

As mentioned above, the cell-shaded art style is simply awesome. When the game first came out, many people knocked on it for its "cartoonish and kiddy" look. But honestly, it fits the style of the game so well I wouldn't want it any other way. And the music is amazing. Not only to you get great background music as usually for all the different locales, but the combat music actually plays and spikes according to how the fight is going! Honestly, some developers need to take a little more note on just how important music is in a game. It certainly helped set the atmosphere for this one.

Even the story somewhat breaks the mold of the other Zeldas, if not at least for the first few hours. But I won't spoil that any just in case someone reading hasn't played yet.... (I'm looking at you.)

So after such a wonderful little gem, just what could be up next on the list? Well, don't pay attention to the one in the other article, cause I'm just picking games at random now. Sonic Unleashed was up next. Don't ask me how that went because I only played it for five minutes.
What's actually next up: Mass Effect.
I have a feeling this ones going to take a little longer than the others.

School's finally out, summer time is here, and that means there's plenty of more free time on my calendar for gaming. If you're the type of game I unfortunately happen to be (lazy), then there's probably a long list of games you've been meaning to or want to play but have just never gotten around to it, for whatever reason. Well this summer I've decided to try and knock out as many of said games as possible, especially now that my Goozex account has caused me to acquire a nice little pile of games shouting "Play me!" So I decided to sit down and write up a list of games I own that desperately need to be played and beaten. It's not a terribly long list, but it should last all summer (with maybe a few others added on if I can't help myself from buying more). First up on the list: Red Faction: Guerrilla. I had heard a few things over the past year that it's been out, but have never really seen any game play or anything. I did hear nothing but generally favorable things about it though, so when I saw it for cheap I decided to pick it up.

This is now one of my favorite games and all I have to say is, "WHY DID I NOT PLAY YOU SOONER?"

After watching the opening cutscene, and then finally getting to walk around while your brother gives you some objectives, I thought to myself, "This doesn't seem like it's going to be so bad. At least the cutscenes aren't three hours long." Then he tells me to demolish the abandoned site in front of me and collect the salvage. That first swing with my sledgehammer was on of the most satisfying things in my gaming life. And the swing after that, and the swing after that, and then the freaking EXPLOSION after that! I just knew from that moment on I was going to have a (wait for it).....blast! The missions are fast-paced, and never seem to get old or too frustrating. The story, although nothing life-changing or touching (but what else would you expect), is still entertaining enough to stay interesting till the grand finale. This is certainly my new I'm-pissed-off-at-everyone-and-everything-and-just-want-to-blow-things-up-game.

I'm not here to write a review or anything, so I won't go on and on. But I'm more than happy to be able to put Red Faction: Guerrilla on my "Played" list.

Oh, and did I mention how satisfying it is to swing that sledgehammer? Seriously, running up to an EDF drone and smacking him with a killing blow never gets old. Hell, I barely even used anything else to kill them the entire game. You also know a game is great when on a mission to take out eight snipers, you can whip out huge rockets and blow the whole building up, killing them all in one shot. Unless of course a civilian runs right in front of you causing the rocket to hit him instead, killing everyone and yourself.

After this much balls to the wall action, I searched for the next game on my list that could be on the same level of intensity. Next game on the summer playlist: the God of War Collection for PS3.

There's an infinite number of games I would love to play, but these are the ones that I actually own and need to beat. Well, most of them anyways. Any of you happen to have a list of games you're working on completing?